Barrett

[jaydee]

Was it really necessary for AJ to slap the plate? The guy is just a tool. Barrett overreacted, but I'm sure just about every person AJ has ever met has wanted to hit him in the face.

[Too Tall]

Barrett is a jerk and has an IQ of about 50. He's been doing stupid crap since we got him, I honestly DO think he's just not very smart. I don't like him, I don't like his game, I don't like his bonehead mistakes. When the new Cubs GM is ready to trade him, I won't complain.

He's not very smart because his team has been sucking, showing no life, his team is getting the crapped kicked out of them by the in city rival and he gets barrelled over and knocks the crap out of the person that barrelled him over? So Barretts a jerk, but AJ's not for slapping the plate like an idiot? I think it was great, Barretts the only one on this team that gives a crap. I've been in a few fights in my life so does that make me a jerk, Iq of about 50? What did you want him to do? If he just took it and didn't act like anything was the matter, people would be jumping on him cause he didnt' show any fire.. I don't get it..

 

1. The rundown play.

2. The run-in with Oswalt.

3. The fight with AJP.

4. The incredibly dumb called pitches.

5. The impatience at the plate.

6. The quotes in the press.

 

The guy is a dim-witted moron. So he hits 270 every year, big deal. He still sucks, and he is not a long-term solution, contract notwithstanding.

 

Two things:

 

- Don't forget the Dave Roberts "you're not allowed to steal on me" incident.

 

- How is slapping the plate any different then standing and watching home runs leave the park or giving an emphatic bat flip, ala Jaque Jones and good 'ol Sammy?

 

You can't have it both ways and you can't choose when to call a play dirty or non-dirty depending on your mood. That's what irks me guys.

 

Barrett isn't the only player on this team that does stupid things, infact, pretty much all of them do.. Perez bunting with 2 on 2 out in the bottom of the ninth, murton trying to grab the ball out of the vines, cedeno throwing the ball away when he thought he called time out.. Jones getting picked off second more than once, pichers not covering first. And there are many more. This hole team is not very smart. You can't just single out Barrett for punching AJ and saying he's stupid. With Lee out, the IQ of the hole team is cut in half.

The plate slapping was stupid, and so is Jaques little bat flip he does, and I could do/done with out Lee or Sosa's little homerun hops, just play the game, and play it like you've been there before.

[soccer10k]

Barrett is a jerk and has an IQ of about 50. He's been doing stupid crap since we got him, I honestly DO think he's just not very smart. I don't like him, I don't like his game, I don't like his bonehead mistakes. When the new Cubs GM is ready to trade him, I won't complain.

He's not very smart because his team has been sucking, showing no life, his team is getting the crapped kicked out of them by the in city rival and he gets barrelled over and knocks the crap out of the person that barrelled him over? So Barretts a jerk, but AJ's not for slapping the plate like an idiot? I think it was great, Barretts the only one on this team that gives a crap. I've been in a few fights in my life so does that make me a jerk, Iq of about 50? What did you want him to do? If he just took it and didn't act like anything was the matter, people would be jumping on him cause he didnt' show any fire.. I don't get it..

 

1. The rundown play.

2. The run-in with Oswalt.

3. The fight with AJP.

4. The incredibly dumb called pitches.

5. The impatience at the plate.

6. The quotes in the press.

 

The guy is a dim-witted moron. So he hits 270 every year, big deal. He still sucks, and he is not a long-term solution, contract notwithstanding.

 

Just curious. What were you saying when Barrett hit the grand slam to beat the Cardinals? Because I don't remember anyone saying anything that could be considered negative after he hit that bomb.

[soccer10k]

If catchers get run over all the time, how come the highlights aren't shown on SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight? Everybody knows that SC and BT would show the big hits, but I rarely see them. So where are all of these mysterious collisions you speak of?

[Banedon]

I won't go so far as to say that I hate Barrett or anything, but I do think what happened today was pretty dumb on his part. It seems like he recognizes that it was though. Apparently he said that he wishes he'd only pushed AJ, and that I could get behind...

 

I just don't think there's any place for out right throwing punches in baseball, unless it's in retaliation. Michael got flattened, and he wanted to make sure AJ knew he didn't appreciate it...great..I get that...punching him was out of line though. And it certainly didn't raise my opinion of Michael.

[SouthSideRyan]

He didn't take exception to that.

 

And if you take your mask off, that's when something can get out of hand. If you just keep your mask on and say what you want to say, it doesn't have to escalate.

Huh? So what did he take exception to?

 

No, you leave your mask on to keep someone from punching your lights out.

According to him, the bumping afterwards.

 

Do you actually think Oswalt was going to throw a punch so he could get ejected and risk hurting his hand?

No, I don't think he would ever do something that stupid...but Barrett obviously must have thought it.

 

Nah Barrett's got an IQ of 50, there's no way he could've thought of it.

[Balsa]

"My reaction today was a result of that play," Barrett said. "It was a great play on [Pierzynski's] part. It was a great read. He did a great job coming in. Between myself trying to watch the ball and watch him at the same time, there was a collision at the plate. I can't take anything away from him.

 

"As far as the other part, we're grown men. We've got a job to do. To me, there's no correlation between that play and what's been going on."

 

"It's one of those plays -- bang, bang -- things happen so quick," Barrett said. "All I know is, as I'm laying down, he's walking toward me and he sort of barely nudges me, and I don't know what is going on."

 

"In my opinion, I'm a grown man, and I take care of things the way I feel they need to be taken care of," Barrett said. "They're not always the best decisions. When you hit a grown man, it's never right."

[soccer10k]

Barrett's being suspended isn't going to hurt the team much at all. The last time I checked, the Cubs have lost 17 out of 21 games. If you take Barrett off the team for that stretch, the most it would cost the team is 4 games, which isn't very much.

 

I don't necessarily agree with what he did, I'm just saying that losing him isn't going to matter very much.

[Soul]

Barrett's being suspended isn't going to hurt the team much at all. The last time I checked, the Cubs have lost 17 out of 21 games. If you take Barrett off the team for that stretch, the most it would cost the team is 4 games, which isn't very much.

 

I don't necessarily agree with what he did, I'm just saying that losing him isn't going to matter very much.

 

Indeed. The season has been over for weeks anyway. This means nothing, other than I wish I could trade for Barrett's upcoming vacation time.

[Jehrico]

Have some of you ever played sports? I'll bet my life savings that it wasn't about "saving face" or any other machoism garbage some of you attribute it to. It's called competition, and it doesn't have anything to do with your morale crusade to judge others on the field. Guys are frustrated and tempers are high. Most likely, it was a culmination of crap from AJP (possibly beginning with the last game) that caused Barrett to snap. It's a spur of the moment thing, and doesn't have anything to do with the machoism you're trying to accredit it to. That doesn't make it right either way, and maybe Barrett needs to have a little thicker skin, but let's get off of the high horse here. Edited May 21, 2006 by Jehrico

[Sammy Sofa]

I'd be more pissed, but Barrett's bat has won them how many games over the last 20? I hope everyone starts tossing out punches at this point. Forfeit the season!

[soccer10k]

I just saw the replays on Baseball Tonight. It seemed like Pierzynski wasn't going to get anything else. Not only did the umpire hold Barrett back but Podsednik got in his way as well. If anyone was saved from a beatdown, it was Podsednik.

[soccer10k]

Why couldn't Pierzynski have slid? There was no reason to bowl over Barrett. I don't care about where the ball was and whether or not Pierzynski knew where it was. He had no intentions of sliding whether the ball was there or not. What happens if the throw gets cut off? Then Pierzynski runs Barrett over for absolutely no reason at all. Pierzynski should have slid just like Jeremy Giambi should have slid in the postseason a few years ago for the A's against the Yankees. I don't think Barrett reacted in the right way, but Pierzynski is at least half to blame for this incident.

 

I started up a new thread for this discussion here:

 

http://www.northsidebaseball.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=31958

Edited May 21, 2006 by soccer10k

[Laura]

The photographic evidence suggests that AJP is a bigger guy than Barrett. :D

[oldstyle81]

The photographic evidence suggests that AJP is a bigger guy than Barrett. :D

 

the bigger they are , the harder they fall

[E.J.]

I just saw the replays on Baseball Tonight. It seemed like Pierzynski wasn't going to get anything else. Not only did the umpire hold Barrett back but Podsednik got in his way as well. If anyone was saved from a beatdown, it was Podsednik.

 

Barrett was winding up to clock Podsednik too until the umpire grabbed him. Would have liked to see that. Barrett would have killed him.

[SeldomSeen]

 

Its also prissy (in everyday speak I'd use another word that is p---y') behavior to take crap and not do anything about it. Sometimes you have to stand up for yourself and your team or you will be run over and disrespected all the time.

 

There are some things going for blind masculine violence.

Because everyone around the league has so much respect for the Cubs as it stands? This team is an absolute joke right now, and they got exactly what they deserved today. If they want to make a statement, how about winning a few games? I hate Pierzynski as much as the next guy, but the play was clean.

 

It's one thing to play with passion in a competitive series. It's quite another to make a fool of yourself and have your head handed to you by a better team. If the Cubs want respect they ought to try winning a World Series sometime this century.

 

It's a mess right now, and it's definitely an organizational failure.

[katway]

I just saw the replays on Baseball Tonight. It seemed like Pierzynski wasn't going to get anything else. Not only did the umpire hold Barrett back but Podsednik got in his way as well. If anyone was saved from a beatdown, it was Podsednik.

 

I saw it on WGN and AJP was going after his helmet. His helmet clearly went behind Barrett.

[soccer10k]

I just saw the replays on Baseball Tonight. It seemed like Pierzynski wasn't going to get anything else. Not only did the umpire hold Barrett back but Podsednik got in his way as well. If anyone was saved from a beatdown, it was Podsednik.

 

I saw it on WGN and AJP was going after his helmet. His helmet clearly went behind Barrett.

 

I'm talking about after Barrett decked Pierzynski. After that, both the ump and Podsednik got in the way of Barrett.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I just saw the replays on Baseball Tonight. It seemed like Pierzynski wasn't going to get anything else. Not only did the umpire hold Barrett back but Podsednik got in his way as well. If anyone was saved from a beatdown, it was Podsednik.

 

Barrett was winding up to clock Podsednik too until the umpire grabbed him. Would have liked to see that. Barrett would have killed him.

 

Oh man, you could see Pods bracing for it too. He would've been Farnsworthed for sure.

[SouthSideRyan]

I just saw the replays on Baseball Tonight. It seemed like Pierzynski wasn't going to get anything else. Not only did the umpire hold Barrett back but Podsednik got in his way as well. If anyone was saved from a beatdown, it was Podsednik.

 

I saw it on WGN and AJP was going after his helmet. His helmet clearly went behind Barrett.

 

Yeah you could tell because Pierzynski was mouthing "look my helmet" and dragged his hands along the ground in a direct path towards the helmet.

[katway]

I just saw the replays on Baseball Tonight. It seemed like Pierzynski wasn't going to get anything else. Not only did the umpire hold Barrett back but Podsednik got in his way as well. If anyone was saved from a beatdown, it was Podsednik.

 

I saw it on WGN and AJP was going after his helmet. His helmet clearly went behind Barrett.

 

Yeah you could tell because Pierzynski was mouthing "look my helmet" and dragged his hands along the ground in a direct path towards the helmet.

 

Does anyone really think AJP got up to go after Barrett? If AJP actually was going after Barrett, then that's the worst attempt I've seen to chase someone down.

 

According to the players, Barret grabbed AJP and said, "I didn't have the ball ****," then threw a right cross. AJP didn't say anything before getting hit.

 

see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBTECs-G0F4&search=barrett%20cubs

[sunnydoo]

I think you will see Barrett get 7 or 8 games. It will be reduced to 5 or 6 on appeal.

 

Anderson should get 8 too, but will probably get a wrist slap for 3 or 4.

 

Mabry, Podsednik, and AJP should get fined but not suspended.

[NorthsideAvenger]

To the NAYSAYER of Michael Barrett:

From: And upset fan

Subject: Calling what Barrett did, "stupid" and "embarrassing."

 

How many of you people have EVER played the position of catcher? It's not a position that ALOT of people volunteer to play. In fact...there is a reason why catcher has the mantra of "Tools of ignorance."

 

Now, with that said....I was a FORMER catcher. Played the position till I tore up my knee so bad, that the docs told me that I could continue to play and have a lasting limp (the Darren Daulton syndrome, so to speak), or give up being a catcher and walk perfectically normal. I chose walking normal. To say...I've been "bowled over" a few times, is an understatement. So to say....I have a unique POV of the situation. What AJP did was by far, classless, stupid, and beyond "reckless." All Barrett was doing was trying to defend himself against a player who was trying to hurt him. Barrett didn't do ANYTHING that any of us would have done in the same situation. As a former player/catcher, I would be have been rougher on AJ then Barrett was. Barrett had NO DEEP INCENTIVES to starting this fight....no he was protecting himself. And for those who are downplaying what Barrett did, needs to play the position in a high level competition before you pass judgement on what Barrett did.

 

And the cruel irony of this situation is....AJ will get a "day off" tomorrow to heal up his pride, and Barrett will suspended, even tho is was AJ who instigated the the whole fight with his actions.

 

Michael Barrett is my hero. He is "THE MAN."

[soccer10k]

I just saw the replays on Baseball Tonight. It seemed like Pierzynski wasn't going to get anything else. Not only did the umpire hold Barrett back but Podsednik got in his way as well. If anyone was saved from a beatdown, it was Podsednik.

 

I saw it on WGN and AJP was going after his helmet. His helmet clearly went behind Barrett.

 

Yeah you could tell because Pierzynski was mouthing "look my helmet" and dragged his hands along the ground in a direct path towards the helmet.

 

Does anyone really think AJP got up to go after Barrett? If AJP actually was going after Barrett, then that's the worst attempt I've seen to chase someone down.

 

According to the players, Barret grabbed AJP and said, "I didn't have the ball ****," then threw a right cross. AJP didn't say anything before getting hit.

 

see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBTECs-G0F4&search=barrett%20cubs

 

I don't think AJP was trying to go after Barrett. Pierzynski inflicted his damage when he flattened Barrett. He didn't need to do anything else.